New sewage spill location investigated by DC Water, National Park Service

WASHINGTON — It might be another week or two until the Capital Crescent trail is open according to the National Park Service, which says yet another sewage spill from last week’s storms is being investigated Thursday.

D.C. Water and the National Park Service staff are investigating the third spill location, a man hole a quarter mile north of the previously reported lock 6 spill.

Crews are still working to clean a section of the Capital Crescent Trail where some of the sewage spilled over the trail and into the nearby woods and canal.

“The system is designed to overflow into the Potomac-Anacostia River and Rock Creek. The difference here was that it spilled over park land and over the trail and that it not what is supposed to happen,” says John Lisle with DC Water.

Testing results on the C&O Canal water quality aren’t back yet, but the sewage spill doesn’t affect the quality of the area’s drinking water, Lisle says.

“The Capital Crescent Trail remains closed from below Fletcher’s Cove to end of trail in Georgetwown. And you know, the trail and the canal have the potential to remain closed for the next week or two,” says Jenny Anzelmo Sarles with the National Park Service.